


Runaway

by Star_Going_Supernova



Series: If You Give a Titan a Brownie [1]
Category: Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019)
Genre: Fluff, Found family bonding, Gen, Maddie accidentally runs away, Neglectful Emma and Mark Russell, Post-Godzilla (2014), Pre-KotM, and unfortunately Maddie gets a little bit forgotten about in the process, they’re going through some stuff, this is 4300 words of maddie charming the heck out of a bunch of grown-ups
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24633343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Going_Supernova/pseuds/Star_Going_Supernova
Summary: “If I had the two of you for parents, I’d run away from home too!” ~Jackson Barnes,Godzilla: King of the MonstersIn which, Maddie more or less does exactly that without quite meaning to.
Series: If You Give a Titan a Brownie [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783387
Comments: 36
Kudos: 127





	Runaway

**Author's Note:**

> There might be things in this story that aren’t canon. I wasn’t particularly invested in fact checking. Basically, I rewatched the scene where Barnes says that line and immediately wrote half of this, so I’m just here to have a good time. Is this pre-canon? Alternate universe? Canon divergent? Who knows! 
> 
> All I know is that I needed Unintentional Runaway!Maddie bonding with G-team, so here we are.

Maddie looked around from where she sat on the bench her mom had set her on and swung her feet. People passed by her every now and then, offering her little smiles even as they made faces of grown-up confusion and concern. She’d gotten good at recognizing those expressions.

She figured it was because she was just a kid, sitting alone in a hallway of a big important organization. Grown-ups had this weird _thing_ about seeing too-young kids all alone.

She didn’t really understand why. She was alone a lot of the time, recently, and she much preferred it over listening to her parents.

They hadn’t used to argue so much. At all, really. It wasn’t the only thing that had changed since…

Maddie swung her feet back and forth and tried not to think about San Francisco. She’d probably just start crying again, and Mom and Dad acted weird recently whenever she cried.

(They hadn’t used to do that either.)

She heard the sound of something breaking, followed by raised voices, in the room her parents were in. She wasn’t sure what they were talking about, just that it had something to do with their old Monarch work or something.

She’d been told to stay right there until they were done, but Maddie knew three things. One, that they wouldn’t be done for a looooong time, and two, that they’d both be in such bad moods by the time they _were_ done that they wouldn’t actually notice if she was still there or not. They’d just storm off and be all mad by themselves for a while and they’d ignore everything while they did.

Including her.

And three: she was really really tired of things one and two.

So she hopped off the bench, and marched down the hall with all the confidence of a seven-year-old who absolutely didn’t care if she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. Which was actually rather a lot.

Though she kept getting those particular looks, no one bothered to ask her if she was lost or anything, which was the real trick. She’d learned through boredom-induced experiments that if she looked like she knew where she were going and like she weren’t sneaking around, she was rarely stopped. Being sneaky was suspicious, acting like she belonged was like wearing an invisibility cloak.

After some random wandering, Maddie ended up in a great big room with great big doors leading outside. All sorts of fancy looking helicopters and planes filled the space, with people bustling around between them.

A pair of grown-ups, a man and a woman, walked by without noticing her—see! like magic!—and she just barely caught the man saying, “I’ll be glad to be back at Castle Bravo. There’s something to say about having a routine.”

Maddie trailed after them without looking at them. Eyes were like magnets, and some people could feel when they were being looked at.

The woman laughed. “No argument here. I’ve had enough of dealing with the Suits.”

Though she wasn’t sure what was so bad about suits—Andrew had said his was stuffy and hard to play in, back when they’d gone to a wedding for someone she didn’t know, so maybe that was it—Maddie knew Dr. Ilene was at a place called Castle Bravo right now.

Maddie, who was always eager to see Dr. Ilene (or any adult who didn’t talk to her like she was stupid), decided she had better things to do than wait for her parents to finish shouting. Like go to Castle Bravo.

She made sure to hang back a little, because now would be a bad time to look suspicious and sneaky, and wait until the man and woman disappeared into one of the fancy helicopters. After a quick glance around to make sure no one was paying attention to her, she scampered up after them.

It was dark inside, and even better—empty. Maddie tucked herself into a particularly shadowy corner and started swinging her feet.

• • •

The fancy helicopter took off after a few minutes, and Maddie remained undetected. She got a little sleepy and eventually drifted off to the steady hum and gentle rocking.

Some time later, she woke back up as they were landing. Staying extra still, she waited for the two pilots to leave before carefully going up to the ramp.

They were in another big room with lots of fancy aircraft, though this one was a little smaller and didn’t have giant doors leading outside. It was darker than the other one, though, which helped her slip out and stay out of sight as she looked around.

After finding a hallway, Maddie began to wonder how best to find Dr. Ilene. Since she was super smart, she was probably where important people worked. The only confusing part of her wandering was when she discovered that the whole building went down, not up. Being on the floor with the aircraft hanger was as high as the elevator buttons went.

She chose a middle one and hoped for the best.

Nothing in particular stood out on this new floor as being where important smart people worked, and she was about to decide she had the wrong one, when a young woman left a room farther down the hallways and started walking toward Maddie.

She was pretty busy looking at whatever was on her tablet, so Maddie took the opportunity to skip up to her with a practiced smile and cheerily say, “Hi! Do you know where my Aunt Ilene is?”

The woman startled but didn’t immediately look concerned or confused about Maddie’s presence. In fact, she was quick to smile back and respond, “I’m sure she’s either in the main computer lab or the central hub. Did you get turned around, sweetie? I can help you find her, if you want.”

Maddie beamed. “Yes please! I haven’t been visiting very long yet, so I got lost!”

And, like always, the young, happy innocence worked like a charm. She was led to the next floor down, given a helpful tip on how to remember what was on each floor, and taken directly to the central hub without ever being questioned.

“There she is!” she said when she spotted Dr. Ilene, making sure to bounce excitedly on her toes. “Thank you for helping me!”

Her guide laughed, said, “You’re welcome!” and patted her head before going back the way they’d come.

Maddie stood just inside the doorway to observe the patterns in the room. Most people seemed pretty busy with whatever they were doing, and those who moved around mostly stayed in the same areas.

She waited for the moment when everyone was looking at one screen or another before silently slipping across the room to stand behind Dr. Ilene’s chair. On one side was open space, and on the other was—oh, it was Dr. Rick. She hadn’t noticed him.

Decision made, she stepped in between them and quietly said, “Hi, Dr. Ilene! Hi, Dr. Rick!”

Both grown-ups jumped in place before whipping their heads around to look at her. Dr. Rick dramatically placed his hand over his heart and wheezed slightly.

“Maddie! What are you doing here?” Dr. Ilene asked.

“Visiting you,” she answered. “Mom and Dad were arguing again, and I heard someone say they were going to Castle Bravo, and I remembered _you_ were at Castle Bravo, so I decided to come say hi instead of waiting for Mom and Dad to finish being mad at everything.”

Dr. Ilene frowned slightly, but it wasn’t from anger. Maddie knew what angry frowning looked like. Hers was a little sadder. Maybe she was disappointed that Maddie’s parents weren’t there to say hi with her?

The two adults exchanged glances, the sort that meant they were telling each other things with their eyebrows or something. Maddie was familiar with those looks too, but to her unending frustration, could never understand what was being silently said.

Dr. Rick reached out to ruffle Maddie’s hair. “What am I, chopped liver?”

“I’m happy to see you too, Dr. Rick! I just didn’t know you were here until I saw you.”

“Darn right! I know it’s been a while, but I didn’t think you’d forget about me that easily.”

Maddie giggled. “I don’t think I could forget about you even if I wanted. Not after what you did at my seventh birthday party.”

Dr. Ilene bit her lip around a smile as Dr. Rick groaned. “That was a rather memorable day, indeed,” she said.

“I’ve never seen Dad get so mad so fast,” Maddie added. “It was really funny.”

“Geez, a guy floods a man’s backyard once and no one ever lets it go, huh?”

Maddie grinned. This was much better than listening to her parents all day. Much better than swinging her feet alone in a boring hallway.

Dr. Rick swiveled his chair so his whole body faced Maddie and leaned over to ask, “Say, kiddo, do you actually know where you are?”

She shook her head.

“Want me to show you around?”

“Yeah!” Dr. Rick was lots of fun and would probably take her places she maybe wasn’t supposed to go, which was exactly opposite of the sorts of tours her parents had given her.

He turned back to his computer to put it to sleep before standing. His back cracked as he stretched. Maddie stuck her tongue out at the sound and glanced at Dr. Ilene. She was watching her with a small smile.

“Are you gonna tell my parents?” Maddie asked.

She was quiet for a moment before she sighed. There was a steely look in her eyes that made Maddie straighten up a bit.

“No,” Dr. Ilene said, and she was officially Maddie’s favorite person—after Andrew, of course, because her brother would always be her favorite person even if he wasn’t around anymore. “But I _will_ leave them a message asking them to call me. I’ll explain then. _But…_ ” She bent closer to Maddie and continued in a very sneaky tone, “I will ask if you can stay for a few days.”

“You’re the _best,_ Dr. Ilene!” Maddie reached out and wrapped her arms around her neck.

Dr. Ilene laughed softly in her ear as one of her arms pressed against Maddie’s back. “Now, go have fun with Rick. And you—” she jabbed a finger at Dr. Rick, who held up his hands in innocence— “keep it child friendly.”

Maddie smothered her laughter into her hands at the overly offended look that passed over his face. He held a hand out for Maddie to take, and she happily bounced to his side to take it.

“Sorry, kid,” he said, looking down at her with a silly frown, “looks like we can’t go swimming with the sharks.”

With a delighted gasp, she asked, “There are sharks here? Can we see them? Please?”

Dr. Ilene sighed loudly, covered her eyes with her hand, and shook her head.

• • •

“This base is still pretty new,” Dr. Rick told her as they walked down a hallway. “And it was made so we could study Godzilla.”

“Is this where he lives?” Maddie asked.

“More or less. At the very least, he passes by every now and then.”

“Oh. Is he really scary? I thought he was kinda scary but only ’cause he’s _really_ tall but it was all dark and smoky so I couldn’t see him all the way.”

Dr. Rick led her through a door into what looked like a living room with part of a kitchen on one end. Except Maddie didn’t care about the kitchen, even though she was a little hungry, because one of the walls was almost entirely a window.

“We’re underwater!” she cried, lunging forward and releasing Dr. Rick’s hand to go press up against it. The glass was cold beneath her palms and a little circle of fog formed in front of her mouth.

The water was dark, which meant they were pretty deep, but there must’ve been lights outside the window, because she could easily see the little fish that swam by. She stared intensely, wondering if there really _were_ sharks out there.

She twisted around to smile brightly at Dr. Rick, who was sitting on the back of a couch. There was a funny expression on his face, and it was sad without being sad and also happy without being happy. Grown-ups were complicated.

“It’s pretty cool out there, huh?” he asked.

She nodded.

“We see Godzilla from time to time. Most of us think he’s scary, kid, but not… we’re scared of him because we know what he can do, not because we think he’s bad.”

She nodded again, slower this time. “Like San Francisco?”

“Yeah.”

Maddie hesitated. “There was a fight. Was he the good guy?”

Dr. Rick smiled and said, “A lot of us think so. But a lot of the rest of the world thinks he’s just a stupid animal, that he can’t actually be a good guy.”

Leaving the window to go stand in front of him, Maddie asked, “What do you think?”

He slid off his seat to pick her up and set her beside him. Maddie didn’t mind swinging her feet, banging her heels against the hard couch back in the process, when she had company. To her delight, Dr. Rick started kicking his feet back and forth too.

“I think… the big guy’s got his reasons and I think we should have a healthy respect for him, but I _know_ he could’ve done more damage in San Francisco. Serizawa believes he’s the good guy, and I trust Serizawa.”

Maddie considered this reasoning. Dr. Serizawa was super smart too, like Aunt Viv and Dr. Ilene and Dr. Ling and Dr. Rick. “Why does _he_ think Godzilla’s good?”

Dr. Rick grinned. “The full explanation uses a lot of big words, kid.”

Maddie stuck her tongue out at him. “I know big words.”

He reached over to mess up her hair. “I’m sure you do. In short, he thinks Titans and humans can get along just fine. But we’ll have to put some effort into it, and some people don’t like that. They’d rather kill or control the Titans because they could hurt us.”

“That’s stupid of them,” Maddie decided, making a face. “Being friends with people bigger than you is a good thing. Like Spencer from school. He’s two grades older than me, but I shared my brownies with him, so when _David,”_ she scowled, “threw a rock at me, Spencer punched him.” She looked up at Dr. Rick. “So, like how Godzilla fought the other ones, right? And he didn’t even do it for brownies.”

“Out of the mouths of babes,” he muttered, tilted to the side and bumped his arm against Maddie’s shoulder. “I say we put you in charge of Monarch, kid. You’ve got the right idea.”

Maddie nearly tumbled off the couch from laughing too hard.

• • •

Dr. Ilene didn’t bring up Maddie’s parents when they eventually went back to the central hub, but since no one mentioned her having to leave, Maddie was fine with that. By bedtime, Maddie had been introduced to a lot of other people and found herself having an even better time than she’d imagined.

There was even a duffle bag with her pajamas and toothbrush and her favorite stuffed animal and a bunch of other stuff she’d need for spending a few nights away from home. It was like magic.

Dr. Ilene came by the room Maddie’d been given a little while after dropping her off there to make sure she was comfortable and ready for bed.  
  
“I’m sorry for causing trouble today,” Maddie said, fidgeting with Scooter, her velvety soft turtle plushie.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Dr. Ilene gently grasped Maddie’s hand. “You didn’t cause any trouble, Maddie. I was very happy to see you. Your parents were…” she hesitated, which usually meant a grown-up was gonna lie, or at least not tell the full truth, “surprised to find you missing, but my call kept them from panicking.”

Maddie pressed her lips together in a not-smile. “They didn’t notice, did they?” Dr. Rick had showed her how far away Castle Bravo was from the base Maddie had been at. It had taken hours to fly from one to the other. Her parents’ meeting had to have finished before Dr. Ilene’s call.

Dr. Ilene’s face went really sad, and her shoulders slumped a little.

“It’s okay,” Maddie rushed to reassure her. “I’m used to it!”

This didn’t seem to help. Dr. Ilene raised her hand to press it against Maddie’s cheek. “And I am sorry about that, Maddie. You shouldn’t have to be used to it.”

She stood up, and Maddie, knowing how the routine went, scooted down until her head was on the pillow. Dr. Ilene made sure she was comfy and warm before going to the door and turning off the lights. “Good night, Maddie. Sleep well.”

“You too, Dr. Ilene! Thank you for letting me stay!”

• • •

Maddie ended up leaving her room early the next morning to wander, bringing Scooter with her so he could see the ocean too. It was so early, barely anyone was walking around, which suited her just fine.

She was sitting behind the couch in another of those living rooms with kitchens, Scooter balanced on her raised knees facing the giant window, when she heard a few other people enter the room.

They were talking amongst themselves, and she saw no reason to interrupt them. In fact, she barely paid them any attention until a new noise filled the room. A recording of something familiar.

Maddie popped up from behind the couch and asked, “Is that Godzilla?”

The grown-ups—two men and a woman—all violently startled at her sudden appearance. The younger of the two men hissed out a bad word.

“Sorry,” she said, hugging Scooter to her chest. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The woman chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. You got us good, kid. What are you doing back there?”

Maddie glanced over her shoulder at the window. “I like the ocean.” She walked around the couch and up to the circular table they were all sitting at. There was a tablet on top, which was the source of the rumbles and hums she’d heard. “Is that Godzilla?” she repeated.

“Sure is,” the older man, who had a beard, said. He lifted the tablet and tilted it toward her. A video was playing, and even though it was dark, Godzilla’s shape was pretty obvious. His spines lit up bright blue.

“Oooh,” she said. “I never saw him do that.” It was really pretty.

The man frowned. “Where’d you see him?”

“San Francisco.” In the silence that followed, she reached out with her free hand to trace the line of his body all the way down to his tail.

“What’s your name, kid?” the woman asked softly.

“Maddie. What’s yours?”

“Call me Griffin,” she said.

Maddie bounced up and down once. “That’s the _coolest_ name!”

Griffin laughed as she picked up a granola bar from the table. “Thanks, kiddo.”

The younger man saluted her with his coffee cup. “Martinez.”

“Not as cool as Griffin, but still pretty cool,” Maddie allowed, getting more laughter in response.

“I’m afraid I’ve got the most boring name here, Maddie,” the bearded man said, “I’m just Barnes.”

She couldn’t deny that he was right. But, “Your beard’s pretty cool, though.” She climbed into the fourth chair at the table as he grinned teasingly over at Martinez.

“I haven’t seen a kid around here before,” Griffin said. “Are you here with your parents?”

“Nah, I got bored waiting for them to be done arguing ’bout stuff, so I came to visit Dr. Ilene.”

Barnes grinned. “Sounds like we got a little runaway on our hands.”

Maddie smiled down at Scooter. “I’ve never run away before.” She looked over at the tablet, which had gone silent. “Do you guys study Godzilla too? Dr. Rick said that’s what this base is for.”

“Eh, we’re not the research or scientist type,” Griffin said, taking a bite of her granola bar. “We’re part of G-team.”

 _G-team._ Now that sounded cool.

Barnes explained, “If Titans get into a fight or cause problems, we’re the ones who try and put a stop to it. We’re the military branch of Monarch.”

Maddie nodded. That made sense. “So, like safety monitors on the playground at recess?”

All three of them smiled. “Yeah,” Barnes said. “Like that.”

She absently pet Scooter while they ate and drank for a minute. “Have you seen Godzilla before?” she finally asked.

“A couple times,” Griffin said, with nods from the other two. “He keeps to himself mostly, and he hasn’t given us any trouble since we started watching him. I’d like to hope it stays that way.”

“Amen to that,” Martinez said, raising his mug before taking a sip.

“What do you think of him?” Barnes asked her.

Maddie thought for a second. “I think we should give him brownies to say thank you for beating up the bad Titans.”

Martinez choked on his coffee. Barnes blinked before throwing his head back with a barking laugh. Griffin snorted, crumbs shooting out of her mouth before she could cover it with her free hand.

“That’s a new one,” Barnes chuckled, shaking his head with a smile. “You don’t hate him?”

She shook her head. Even though Andrew had died in San Francisco, she understood something her father, unbeknownst to her, did not. There had been great destruction, yes, but Godzilla couldn’t be blamed for it, not really.

The bad Titans got there first. Godzilla followed so he could stop them. If the bad Titans had never shown up, neither would have Godzilla. She said as much to the three G-team members.

“Huh,” Martinez said, leaning back in his chair. “I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it that way.”

Griffin looked lost in thought. Barnes nudged her before smiling at Maddie, that same weird smile as Dr. Rick had given her yesterday. Ugh, grown-ups.

• • •

G-team found Maddie something to eat as well before offering to show her some of the aircraft they got to fly around. That was where Dr. Ilene eventually found her, sitting in the pilot seat of what they called an Osprey.

“Dr. Ilene! How old do I have to be to fly this?”

“ _At least_ eighteen, but it would likely take longer after that to have you trained properly.”

“Darn,” Maddie said. That was a long time to wait.

Dr. Ilene stood behind Maddie’s seat and watched her press buttons on the powered-down panel in front of her. “Do you want to be part of G-team when you grow up, Maddie?”

She thought about it before wrinkling her nose. “No. I don’t want to fight Titans. I’d rather learn about them, like you!” She looked over at Griffin in the other seat, Barnes standing behind her. “G-team still sounds really cool, though.”

“Someone’s gotta bake those brownies,” Barnes said, reaching across the cockpit to tousle her hair. “Tell you what, you can be an honorary member of G-team.”

“Yes!” Maddie cried, pumping her fist in the air. “Can we get t-shirts?”

All the adults laughed. Dr. Ilene patted her shoulder and told her through her smile, “My sister has just arrived, Maddie, if you’d like to go say hi.”

“Dr. Ling’s here?” She scrambled out of the seat belt without bothering to unbuckle it, which made Griffin laugh even harder when she slipped right out of the straps.

“Not just a little runaway, but an escape artist too,” she said as Maddie went to follow Dr. Ilene. “Hey, kid.”

Maddie turned around just in time to watch Griffin stretch forward and pick up Scooter, who’d been sitting in his place of pride on the dashboard between them. She tossed him over, and Maddie pulled him against her chest.

“Thank you, Griffin! See you later!” She waved goodbye before running to catch up with Dr. Ilene and take her hand, bouncing slightly.

They were in the elevator when Dr. Ilene asked, “Are you happy, Maddie?”

She tilted her head back to look up at her. “Uh huh. Everyone’s super nice and it’s so cool being underwater!” She went quiet for a moment, her smile dimming. “I wish Andrew was here. He could’ve been my copilot.”

“Would you mind if you stayed here for a while?”

Gripping Dr. Ilene’s hand tighter, Maddie asked, “Really?” and held her breath.

The elevator arrived at their floor, so they stepped out before Dr. Ilene knelt down in front of her. “Yes, really. I spoke to your parents, Maddie, and as long as you don’t mind, they agreed to let you stay here while they… sort some things out between them.”

“Like the stuff they’re always arguing about?”

She nodded. “Are you okay with that?”

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes!”

Dr. Ilene relaxed and smiled as she stood up. “I’m glad. Now, let’s not keep Dr. Ling waiting any longer.”

Maddie grinned happily down at Scooter as she tried to keep from skipping along beside her. She wondered if she’d get to see Godzilla during her stay.

• • •

A week later, G-team presented her with a dark grey t-shirt designed to look scaly like Godzilla with their team name and logo on the front and her name in bright, atomic-breath blue in big letters on the back. They each wore an identical shirt with their own names on their backs.

She might’ve cried, but only a little.

(She still wasn’t allowed to fly the Osprey, though. Or swim with the sharks.)

(That was okay. Godzilla swam past the base the day after and Maddie, sitting in front of the even bigger window in the central hub, toasted him with brownies she and Dr. Ling had baked.)

**Author's Note:**

> What’s really interesting about writing a child’s POV (that is, a child who hasn’t been forced to grow up yet) is that I was able to leave out a lot of the grown-up things like issues of custody or child neglect. Maddie’s having a fun time and Ilene is literally like “holy frick, no one noticed this child vanish literal actual hours ago.” The call to the Russells wasn’t “oh haha Maddie’s here, might as well let her stay the weekend,” it was “Maddie is staying here because you didn’t realize your child was missing so you’re going to sort things out before I even let you near her again.”
> 
> Anyway, Castle Bravo has collectively adopted a child whose current greatest goal in life is to give Godzilla brownies. 
> 
> • [my tumblr](https://star-going-supernova.tumblr.com) •


End file.
